Shot by Fla. deputy
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A Davisville, Fla. man who reportedly threatened to shoot his wife was himself shot and killed, inside his home, by an Escambia County (Fla.) sheriff’s deputy who had been sent to the home to conduct a welfare check.
According to a press release issued by Escambia County Sheriff’s Office officials on the agency’s Facebook page, a deputy was sent around 8:12 p.m. Friday, January 25, to a residence along Florida Highway 97, near Greenland Road and about a mile south of the Alabama state line.
The deputy was sent to the home after emergency dispatchers received a report from a relative in another city that the suspect — identified by family friends as 69-year-old Robert C. “Bobby” Martin — had telephoned the relative and said he intended to shoot his wife, Nancy Etheridge Martin.
Sheriff’s reports indicate that Martin, who was armed with an unspecified firearm, refused several commands from the deputy to put the weapon down. Instead, Martin reportedly raised the gun in the direction of the county lawman, who responded by firing his weapon.
The Davisville man, who was reportedly struck by three bullets, was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical personnel from the nearby Walnut Hill station of Escambia Fire Rescue.
Martin, a retired corrections officer with Escambia County (Fla.) Department of Corrections, was a native of Atmore, where he attended Atmore First Assembly of God Church. He was also retired from the Alabama Army National Guard.
The family will receive friends Wednesday, January 30, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home Chapel in Atmore. Funeral services will be held Thursday, January 31, at 2 p.m. from Johnson-Quimby, with Bro. Don Davis and Bro. Michael Roley officiating. Burial will follow in Oak Hill Cemetery.
ECSO officials have not released the name of the officer who fired the fatal shots, but ECSO policy requires that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigate any shooting involving an officer. Chief Deputy Chip Simmons told media representatives that the officer will be placed on administrative leave while the FDLE probe is ongoing, as is standard procedure.